MCSA Windows Server 2016 Certification Exam Details

When I started my career in IT, it was the time Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Since then almost a decade has passed and we have witnessed to a lot of changes. From Disk Manager utility, Orkut social site, 700 MB capacity Compact Disc media, and Outlook 2003, we have completed the journey of technologies changes till the Hyper-V, Windows Azure, Office 365, Facebook and Whatsapp. It is about to one decade when we had used Windows Server 2003. Now it’s time of Windows Server 2016 to take up the responsibilities of Windows Server family. At the time of Windows Server 2003, Microsoft’s basic server level certification was known as Microsoft Certified System Engineer (MCSE). From there, now, we reached till MCSA Windows Server 2016 certification.

Since Windows Server 2003 is no longer used in nowadays, so we will not waste too much time to remind about MCSE Windows Server 2003 certification.

Important: Windows Server 2016 is still in the Technical Preview (5) state, so the official MCSA Windows Server 2016 certification exam (currently in the beta exam state) information may slightly change when it would be officially launched.

MCSA Windows Server 2008 Certification

After few years, Microsoft launched Windows Server 2008 as the successor of Windows Server 2003. The most noticeable features of Windows Server 2008 were Hyper-V and RODC. Since the exam syllabus and objective were different from Windows Server 2003. It was required to clear five exams in order to earn the MCITP certification. Microsoft also changed the name of certification for Windows Server 2008. Now, it was known as Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP). The MCITP certification was categorized in two ways: MCITP Server Administrator and MCITP Desktop Administrator.

MCSA Windows Server 2012 Certification

After few years of Windows Server 2008 launching, we entered in the first decade of the 21st century (2010). The technologies in the IT sector were changing so rapidly and Microsoft was unable to integrate all the trending new features, services, and products through the Windows Update service. Now it was the time when Windows Server 2012 was officially launched to handle the rapidly-changing and cloud- and virtualization-compatible technologies. The Certification name was also changed from MCITP to MCSA (Microsoft Certified Server Associate). In order to earn the MCSA Windows Server 2012 certification, you have to clear three exams: 410, 411, and 412.

MCSA Windows Server 2016 Certification

Now finally, we come to our current era. Now, everything is going to be virtualized. The cloud technologies are becoming an integral part of our life. Now, we are habitual of social media, Internet, online marketing, and virtual things. The servers are now just not only used to provide IP address (DHCP), name resolution (DNS), and domain environment (AD DS), there are so many other things that are needed to handle and control the latest virtualization and Cloud technologies. That’s why Microsoft launches its next and latest version of server product family called Windows Server 2016. The name of Windows Server 2016 associate level certification is unchanged as it is still tagged as MCSA. However, the exam syllabus and exam codes are changed.

MCSA Windows Server 2016 Certification Exam Codes

The new MCSA 2016 certification exams code are as follows:

MCSA Windows Server 2016 Exam 740: Installation, Storage, and Compute with Windows Server 2016. The exam objectives of this exam are almost similar to the objectives of MCSA 2012 exam 410. The most noticeable new exam objectives for this exam are configuring Nano server, Windows containers, and MDT.

MCSA Windows Server 2016 Exam 741: Networking with Windows Server 2016. This exam is almost similar to the MCSA 2012 exam 411. The new MCSA 2016 exam objectives also consist the configuration of Software Defined Networking (SDN).

MCSA Windows Server 2016 Study Guides

Since Windows Server 2016 is the latest product of Microsoft family and is still in the Technical Preview state, hence there are not too much study materials/guides are available for MCSA Windows Server 2016 exam. However, we would like to mention few resources that will certainly help you to learn Windows Server 2016. We would recommend the following study materials if you are serious to learn Windows Server 2016.